03/08/2002

Allan McNish Diary

I travelled to Australia with a couple of the Toyota PR team straight from a press conference in Tokyo. I thought about visiting Sydney but I wanted to have an early look at Albert Park so I went straight to Melbourne. I drove round and then ran the track a couple of times just to have a look.

On the Tuesday we visited the local Toyota factory and got a fantastic reception. I was signing autographs for about two and a half hours! I had not quite appreciated quite how much Toyota was a family and how much they had taken Formula 1 to their hearts. It was a good boost just before the weekend.

Thursday morning was the first time I came into the paddock. That was the first time I thought: Wow! This is happening. This is it! I had the nerves then as soon as I went into the tunnel. There's a very big differences between going into a paddock with a job to do and going into one looking for work! When I swiped my pass card for the first time it was a relief when the machine bleeped and I was allowed through.

It all settled down but then on Friday I was first out onto the track. It was raining and I saw on the huge screen that the cameras were following me. I didn't want to make a mistake and nobody in the team did. After four or five laps I locked up the brakes going a corner and my heart was in my mouth. But I managed to remember cadence braking and get it sorted out.

The circuit is a lot more technical and a lot tighter than I expected. It has a flow to it but it's quite tricky in wet conditions. We only had one run in qualifying and I was pleased with my performance to be safely in the race 16th.

It was very emotional going around on the parade lap. We were all in Triumph Stags and there were so many people shouting congratulations and good luck. I've got to be honest; I had a tear in my eye as I was coming along the back straight. It really was a moment! But then I got back to the pits and reality. You can't have too many emotions in this job.

My first Grand Prix start was fine. It's not particularly difficult with launch control. It's all done by someone on a computer a week beforehand.

The first thing I saw was a car taking off and then there were bits of debris flying everywhere and people going in every direction. It was a case of just trying to get through without hitting anyone. Olivier Panis spun and I took to the grass to avoid him and as I went back onto the circuit I was turning to go out of Turn 1 and someone came in from the other side and broke my left front suspension.

As much as it was a personal disappointment the team worked well and we got a sixth out of the race with Mika. Even though it wasn't me in the car it was still quite emotional to see the team get a point. I've worked with them for four years now -- two years on this programme -- so I've got a lot of friends in the team.

We flew straight to Malaysia on Sunday and go for a week's training and acclimatisation. My girlfriend Kelly is travelling up on Tuesday and then it's back to the hard work at Sepang.